I used to use Chromium for a bit. It is faster than FF. But, I really can't stand how stripped down the UI for Chrome is. No simple bookmark button? That's so stupid. I also hate the how download bars pops up at the bottom of Chrome.

I don't think our community will go anywhere if we keep trying to modify a 14 year old video game. Compare Tactics Ogre (snes) to FFT. Notice how in FFT the maps are much smaller, have fewer units and allow only 5 units for your team? All technical limitations because of the Playstation. Even if we completely master the engine, we still have the same limitations that the FFT designers had back in 1997.

We need to break out of that. Make our own game engine. That would remove all the technical limitations, and even allow for us to expand them. Imagine a large map with, say 64 units for instance. And before you complain, yes that would mean that the battle system would not be identical to FFT, which is not a big deal. From my previous thread someone posted:

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Advantages of homebrew over hacking:1) No copyright/DRM issues if done correctly2) You can use advanced coding languages and translate into MIPS3) You don't have to worry about hard-coded mechanics or inscrutable code (since you're the one writing it)4) ROM size problems can be ignored. If we're making a PC port, even RAM size is irrelevant since most modern PCs and laptops have far more usable RAM than the PSX/PSP (and it's highly unlikely we'll even use that much since we're probably not coding a 3D graphics/physics engine).

I'd call it "indie', not homebrew though.

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However, this requires us build EVERYTHING from scratch. Also, a good number of us are actually more proficient in ASM than in C++. In short, we will have to throw away everything FFT did right just to either jump through a legal hoop or to ensure total "freedom" to create a game.

This is all worth it in my opinion. It's obvious that Squeenix has no intention of making a real FFT sequel. If we pooled our resources I think we could make a top down, sprite based SRPG in the style of FFT/Tactics Ogre. Keep it simple for the time being. Perhaps some later project could "take it to the next level" of sorts. I for one will begin to take my own advice and will read up on coding languages.

LO is a fork of Open Office. You can save files as .doc or a bunc of other formats. I don't recommend getting rid of MS Office for now, but I think LO has enough for me to use it. Its better than pirating MS Office that's for sure. They're also removing as much of Java as they can, which is super awesome in my book. MS Office 2010 is better, but LO is free. So whatever.

Distributed computing is when many computers work together to complete a very large calculation. It is an alternative to using large super computers. Scientists use distributed computing for many worthy scientific and humanitarian tasks, such as hunting for gravitational waves, running climate models, or searching for cures for cancer. By simply downloading a program and having it run when your computer is idle, you can participate in such projects. After setting up the program, it downloads and uploads the data automatically. Make sure to go to preferences and set them to what you are comfortable with (CPU usage, network usage, etc).

I've set up teams for each project for the Center for Inquiry organization that I work with. Please join them if you can.

You could either allow for a more detailed grid system (each FFT square would be cut up into 4 smaller squares), or go with spheres/circles (like Phantom Brave did). Not sure what is best myself.

2. Armor and Speed. I say implement a weight system which affects speed.

3. Items and Chemist.Should everyone have the ability to use items, or should it be a "special" skill that only chemists could use?

An idea that I have is to have everyone have item, but make them not that effective. Chemists have innate "Throw item" and another skill which doubles the effectiveness of items and potions (since they know how to make and use them properly).

4. Shields.It doesn't seem right that the percent evasion should be based on the equipment itself. That should be based on character stats. The shield should have different properties (weak against fire, nullifies fire attacks, etc), and different sizes (and weights).

5. 3D or 2d? You could go with more detailed and higher res 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds. However, it'd be so freaking epic if it had graphics and art style to similar to Vagrant Story and FFXII. Yes, that means that there WILL be noses. With much larger maps than FFT. And everything is properly to scale. (Notice how buildings are not as big as they should be in FFT so that they could fit into the maps).

6. Character designs.

A mix of FFT and Vagrant Story. Similar to FFT, but with proper body proportions. Most of the VS character designs and equipment are really cool looking. Not a fan of Ashley's butless pants though.

7. Money.

No more "win battle, receive Gil". How to get money though? Not sure. Perhaps odd jobs, selling found items, and random chests? Chemists could have the ability to produce potions, which could be useful for your cash strapped team.

8. Random Battles.

Never liked them. What to do instead? Not sure.

9. World Map

No world map. The entire world is rendered in 3D. You travel between places by actually traveling from town to town. The world would be huge.

10. Item Management

Either games give characters infinite (or near infinite) space for items, or have limited inventories. I never liked the first. The second tends to lead to endless micro-management.

My solution. Space is limited. To increase it, you can buy backpacks (which increases weight for that character). Want to increase it more? Buy some chocobos and wagons. But the trade off is that you have to feed the damn things. To simplify things, your inventory is considered to be one big "pool". So you don't have to do the micromanagement of assigning items to each person.

11. Max Characters per team

I was thinking that the main restraints on how many people you have on your team are practical things like money, food, and such. So it'd be a trade off between the benefits of more dudes vs. the costs. A limit would exist, but it'd be really hard to reach it.

12. Charge Time?

Charge time ftw.

13. Gameplay Options:

- Campaign (Regular Story Mode)- Multiplayer (Deathmatch, but what else?)- What else to include?

14. Target specific body parts?

I thought that it was a good idea in VS. Just poorly executed. How would you guys handle it?

I would make it so that you could never kill someone by just attacking their hands, or limbs. Instead, attacking it enough would eventually make that limb useless.

15. Character Customization.

Based off of FFT. Job System. Should you be able to equip more than one support ability? I was thinking that perhaps some would be worth "two" slots if they're powerful enough (like two swords). Weaker ones would be worth one. This way, weaker support abilities would still be used instead of ignored.

16. Critical Status

The lower your HP, the worse off you are. How much I'm not sure. I like the idea from D&D :

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In 3rd Edition you aren't dead until you reach -10 hp. At 0 hp you are disabled, and will lose HP with any action except movement that doesn't heal you. At -1 to -9, you are dying, meaning you fall unconscious and begin bleeding out at a rate of 1 hp per turn (unless you have an ability like Die Hard) unless healed or you reach -10 hp. You recover completely if you are taken out of negative hp via magical or mundane healing—if you aren't dying but you are still in negative hp, you remain unconscious; any healing stabilizes you.

You can escape from battle. You can also surrender, or pay off your attackers. The enemies can do the same. For instance, if thieves attack you, you can pay them off, run away or battle it out. But if the battle gets to thick, you can give up and pay them what they want.

You can execute a soldier who surrenders if you're evil.

This can shorten battles a bit, since you won't have to spend the extra five minutes dealing with that one Knight who clearly has no chance of survival.

Obviously, Mediators can be useful here.

18. Good/Evil actions

Should you be able to be evil? Could you kill random people, but face the consequences of being a wanted villain?

19. Stats

Two units for stats should be double digets. So, they'd either be 9.6 or 96. But not 9.

20. Brave/Faith and Zodiac

I never liked these that much. Needless complications in my view. Should it be carried over?

Jobs and Abilities

1. Mimes.

They suck in FFT. How do we fix them?

Here's some stuff from other FF games, that aren't in FFT. Which ones should be included in the sequel?